...stay out of the kitchen, or so the saying goes. Our entire adult lives, both of us have made an effort to abide by this bit of wisdom. As we mentioned last week, our daughter, Rachel, is much more oven-oriented than either of her parents. Our culinary skills have forced us to seek out Early Bird dinners all over town while Rachel's love of the kitchen has made her a Pillsbury Bake-Off semi-finalist in their Quick Rise and Shine Breakfast competition.

We learned, when you're in the Bake-Off competition, the Pillsbury team sends you a special branded apron to use as "whenever wear" (as in, we'd like you to wear this whenever someone is pointing a camera in your direction). The contestants get a free apron, the Pillsbury Corp gets their name out there, it's all good.Team Pillsbury also shares some media tips with the contestants; you know, in case they're interviewed for the local t.v. station, the hometown paper, or a popular website.No, not this site; a popular site. Those tips must be golden because the NWF Daily News knocked on Rachel's door and she told all. Plus, the words "Pillsbury" and "Bake-Off" enter the conversation frequently. Her interview ishere.

One fellow who is also a baker but who has yet to hear from the NWF Daily News is Inom, the man on the left. (You might not appreciate the sexiness of Inom's name on first listen but give it some time. If the sullen but steamy vampire in Twilight was called Inom, everyone would think the name sounded oh-so-hot. If there was a popular actor named Inom Clooney, babies everywhere would share the moniker. Deny it if you must but you know we're telling the truth.) Although, honestly, the NWF Daily News might have made a good call. Inom doesn't look like the kind of guy who welcomes reporters.Or photographers, either. Would it kill you, buddy, to break a smile?Whether he's smiling or not, we're on Team Inom. We had some royalty money to spend so we headed to Kiva.org, our favorite micro-lending organization. On the Kiva site (here), we read, "Inom works as a baker and sells baked goods. He is 32 years old. He is a married man, has two sons and two daughters, and lives with his family in the town of Qurgan-Tube in the Khatlon region. The children are in school and his wife helps him in the activities". Inom wanted two thousand dollars to buy the ingredients (flour, sugar, margarine, yeast, eggs, raisins and baking powder) he uses in his biscuits. Since the average annual income in Tajikistan is only $1,388, you might think that's an inordinately large amount of cash. But then you see the size of those biscuits and you realize, hey, those things are HUGE. Is two thousand dollars going to be enough?

So we opened our wallets and contributed to the cause. If Rachel wins the bake-off, she's promised to use part of her million dollar prize to take us to Qurgan-Tube to try Inom's biscuits. And, if we go, we're going to ask the Pillsbury people if we can bring Inom one of those bright blue Bake-Off aprons. Then, if we can somehow talk him into putting it on, we're going to take a picture and share it with you.Because that's what it's all about, you know? Sharing the love.Quote o' the day: "Baking makes me focus. On weighing the sugar. On sieving the flour. I find it calming and rewarding because, in fairness, it is sort of magic. You start off with all this disparate stuff, such as butter and eggs, and what you end up with is so totally different. And also delicious." -- Marian Keyes

Come on in! This

is the electronic home of Renée Harrell. Did you bring any wine?

Renée & Harrell

It's about time you got here.

We aren't kidding about the wine.This is where we talk about writing... ...our writing, mostly. We also discuss kiva.org, Hunting Monsters Press, the magic bakery, self-publishing, pseudonyms, life itself -- a bunch of things.